Building a Powerful Personal Brand for Executives

Written By Nina Gaerter

After years of working closely with senior leadership and CEOs in the Swiss watch industry, securing media interviews and speaking engagements for them, I decided to start this newsletter to share my insights with a wider audience. This weekly digest aims to help professionals to raise their profile and make it fabulous.

What does it take to build a standout personal brand as a C-executive or business owner? It's more than just gaining visibility—shaping the narrative, aligning it with business or career goals, and opening doors to new opportunities on your terms.

Why Build a Personal Brand?

A strong brand is the unique blend of your skills, experiences, and personality that you present to the world. It influences how others perceive you — values, expertise, and reputation. Ultimately, a well-crafted brand positions you for success, both professionally and personally.

Before building a brand, there are questions to answer:

  1. What are your personal and professional goals for the next 6–9 months? In two years?

  2. Are there specific financial business or career objectives attached to brand-building?

  3. Who is your current target audience? How will you turn the audience into your assets? Who do you want to reach next?

For business owners, this could mean expanding clientele, raising funds, or planning an exit. For executives, it might involve moving up the career ladder, growing their influence, and switching industries or locations.

What are the next steps for brand building?

  1. Visual. What people see, when they meet you offline and when searching online

  2. Positioning. When thinking about it, the best is to keep in mind your next career or business move. Keep it simple and strong, aiming for a clear, memorable message in 5–7 words.

  3. Media image & audience. Aiming for Google search visibility:

  • Posting regularly on social media

  • Getting credibility in the media, publishing op-eds

  • Podcasts are also great, going there as a guest

In general personal brand is based on 3 pillars:

  1. Education

  2. Results of the professional experience. From successful projects and partnerships to industry recognition

  3. Public image, including private setting. What is my appearance, who is in my network, what conferences I attend, and what brands I show next to me. There is no need to show everything, but what is shown should be curated carefully.

Tools:

  1. Social media publications

  2. Industry outlets publications: tier 1-2, Swiss media, the UK/US

  3. Speaking engagements at influential industry events

A few examples of personal brands growing: Ray Dalio; Peter Orszag, Lazard; Antoine Arnault, LVMH; Erin Meyer, Insead; Livia von Mitschke-Collande, Google Germany, Axel Dumas, Hermès. Ray Dalio is one of the first content creators in the financial industry and was building a brand authentically, yet strategically. He was also a mentor for a while to scandalous hip-hop star P. Diddy, who is under investigation at the moment. No doubt in Ray Dalio's integrity and seems his brand helps him to support his solid reputation, not getting involved in this case.

Of course, I missed a great number of examples, curious to know yours.

Creating a strong personal brand takes time, but the rewards—career growth, business opportunities, and heightened influence—are well worth the effort. If you want to elevate your leadership brand, let's connect: nina@ninagaertner.com.

PS. A book to read more about it: The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson.

Nina Gaerter
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